Child Nutrition and Cooking - Elements of a Healthy Kitchen

Chopping up some onion and garlic and sauteeing them serves as a wonderful base for any savory vegetable dish.

If you are short on time, keep some frozen backup vegetables in your freezer. As long as it is a homecooked meal, it is probably healthier than the fast food alternative.

In general, the fewer ingredients, the better. Michael Pollan, in his book In Defense of Food, suggests that if our great-grandmothers wouldn't recognize the food or ingredient, we probably shouldn't eat it. I never met my great-grandmother, but my grandmother certainly wouldn't know what acesulfame potassium is...

The USA currently has the highest rates of childhood obesity worldwide. In 2013, approx. one third of American children were either overweight or obese, with 17% specifically suffering from obesity. This is a public health crisis that not only threatens our children's health and well-being, but it threatens to bankrupt the nation as the medical costs of obesity-related illnesses soar. In 2008, these costs were in the range of $147 billion dollars.

Different vegetables provide different combinations of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and other health-promoting compounds. For some of the different vegetable categories (as chosen by the USDA).

MyPlate, released in 2011, suggests we fill half of our plates with fruits and vegetables. The other half should be made up of protein and grains (preferably whole grains!).

The USDA dietary recommendations like MyPlate contain some dietary wisdom, like fill your plate with half fruits and vegetables. However these guidelines are subject to change and do not necessarily represent all of the nutrition wisdom of traditional cuisines in the US or around the globe. Additionally, the USDA regulations are impacted by food industry lobbying. The dairy industry lobbies for a glass of milk instead of water, and the beef industry opposes a statement to “reduce red meat consumption”.